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Pretenders To The Byzantine Throne
Since its fall, the issue of succession to the Byzantine Empire has been a major point of contention both geopolitically, with different states laying claim to its legacy and inheritance, and among the surviving members of the Byzantine nobility and their descendants. Historically, the most prominent claims have been those of the Ottoman Empire, which conquered Byzantium in 1453 and ruled from its former capital, Constantinople; the Russian Empire, as the most powerful state practising Eastern Orthodox Christianity; and various nobles and figures in Western Europe of increasingly spurious and questionable imperial descent. Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire on 29 May 1453, with the last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, dying in the fighting. The Byzantine Empire was the medieval continuation of the ancient Roman Empire, its capital having been transferred from Rome to Constantinople in the 4th century by Rome's first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. Though her ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andreas Palaiologos
Andreas Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Ἀνδρέας Παλαιολόγος; 17 January 1453 – June 1502), sometimes anglicized to Andrew, was the eldest son of Thomas Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea. Thomas was a brother of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the final Byzantine emperor. After his father's death in 1465, Andreas was recognized as the titular Despot of the Morea and from 1483 onwards, he also claimed the title "Emperor of Constantinople" ( la, Imperator Constantinopolitanus). After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the subsequent Ottoman invasion of the Morea in 1460, Andreas's father fled to Corfu with his family. After Thomas died in 1465, the then twelve-year-old Andreas moved to Rome and, as the eldest nephew of Constantine XI, became the head of the Palaiologos family and the chief claimant to the ancient imperial throne. Andreas's later use of the imperial title, never claimed by his father, was supported by some of the Byzantine refugees who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles VIII Of France
Charles VIII, called the Affable (french: l'Affable; 30 June 1470 – 7 April 1498), was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. He succeeded his father Louis XI at the age of 13.Paul Murray Kendall, ''Louis XI: The Universal Spider'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1971), pp. 373–374. His elder sister Anne acted as regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of BourbonStella Fletcher, ''The Longman Companion to Renaissance Europe, 1390–1530'', (Routledge, 1999), 76. until 1491 when the young king turned 21 years of age. During Anne's regency, the great lords rebelled against royal centralisation efforts in a conflict known as the Mad War (1485–1488), which resulted in a victory for the royal government. In a remarkable stroke of audacity, Charles married Anne of Brittany in 1491 after she had already been married by proxy to the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in a ceremony of questionable validity. Preoccupied by the problematic succession in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kings Of France
France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the first king of France, however historians today consider that such a kingdom did not begin until the establishment of West Francia. Titles The kings used the title "King of the Franks" ( la, Rex Francorum) until the late twelfth century; the first to adopt the title of "King of France" (Latin: ''Rex Franciae''; French: ''roi de France'') was Philip II in 1190 (r. 1180–1223), after which the title "King of the Franks" gradually lost ground. However, ''Francorum Rex'' continued to be sometimes used, for example by Louis XII in 1499, by Francis I in 1515, and by Henry II in about 1550; it was also used on coins up to the eighteenth century. During the brief period when the French Constitution of 1791 was in effect (1791–1792) and after t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Palaiologos
Thomas Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Θωμᾶς Παλαιολόγος; 1409 – 12 May 1465) was Despot of the Morea from 1428 until the fall of the despotate in 1460, although he continued to claim the title until his death five years later. He was the younger brother of Constantine XI Palaiologos, the final Byzantine emperor. Thomas was appointed as Despot of the Morea by his oldest brother, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, in 1428, joining his two brothers and other despots Theodore and Constantine, already governing the Morea. Though Theodore proved reluctant to cooperate with his brothers, Thomas and Constantine successfully worked to strengthen the despotate and expand its borders. In 1432, Thomas brought the remaining territories of the Latin Principality of Achaea, established during the Fourth Crusade more than two hundred years earlier, into Byzantine hands by marrying Catherine Zaccaria, daughter and heir to the principality. In 1449, Thomas supported the ascension ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tocco Family
The House of Tocco ( ''Tocchi'', grc-gre, Τόκκος, Tókkos Τόκκοι, ''Tokkoi'') was an Italian noble family from Benevento that came to prominence in the late 14th and 15th centuries, when they ruled various territories in western Greece as Counts Palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos and Despots of Epirus. During their brief period of rule in Greece, they were one of the most ambitious and able Latin dynasties in the region, and they were one of the few to leave descendants lasting until modern times. The earliest known members of the family are recorded in the 12th century in Benevento, though Tocco family genealogies claimed that they originated much earlier, with forged connections to ancient Gothic kings Theodoric the Great and Totila, as well as to the ancient Epirote king Pyrrhus. Members of the family held various prominent offices during the rule of the Hohenstaufen and Angevin dynasties in the Kingdom of Sicily. As a result of the family's loyalty to the Ange ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demetrius Rhodocanakis
Demetrius Rhodocanakis ( el, Δημήτριος Ῥοδοκανάκης, Dēmētrios Rhodokanakēs; 3 December 1840 – 2 September 1902) was a London-based 19th-century Greek merchant, forger and pretender. Demetrius was the last great Byzantine pretender, claiming to be a prince directly descended from the Palaiologos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire from the 1860s onwards, and then the rightful Emperor of Constantinople, as Demetrios II Dukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos Rhodokanakis, from 1895 to his death. Though he lost support after 1895 due to his claims of Byzantine descent having been exposed as forgeries, Demetrius was at one point widely recognized as a Byzantine prince, achieving the recognition of not only the British Foreign Office, but also Pope Pius IX. Demetrius' claim to represent Byzantine royalty rested on a claimed connection between the Rhodocanakis family and the ancient Byzantine Doukas family, as well as on one of his supposed ancestors, also named Deme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chivalric Orders
An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is an order of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades ( 1099–1291) and paired with medieval concepts of ideals of chivalry. Since the 15th century, orders of chivalry, often as dynastic orders, began to be established in a more courtly fashion that could be created ''ad hoc''. These orders would often retain the notion of being a confraternity, society or other association of members, but some of them were ultimately purely honorific and consisted of a medal decoration. In fact, these decorations themselves often came to be known informally as ''orders''. These institutions in turn gave rise to the modern-day orders of merit of sovereign states. Overview An order of knights is a community of knights composed by order rules with the main purpose of an ideal or charitable task. The original ideal lay in monachus et miles (monk and knig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-styled Order
A self-styled order or pseudo-chivalric order is an organisation which claims to be a chivalric order, but is not recognised as legitimate by countries or international bodies. Most self-styled orders arose in or after the mid-18th century, and many have been created recently. Most are short-lived and endure no more than a few decades. Recognition of orders as genuine Many countries do not regulate the wearing of decorations, and remain neutral as to whether any particular order is legitimate or not. Other countries explicitly regulate what decorations are accepted as legitimate. For example, in Sweden, decisions about medals and orders worn on a military uniform has been delegated to the General Staff. The criteria of France provide an illustrative example of those nations which take a more regulatory approach: only decorations recognised by the Chancery of the Legion of Honour may be worn publicly, and permission must be sought and granted to wear any foreign awards or decorati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angelos
The House of Angelos (; gr, Ἄγγελος), feminine form Angelina (), plural Angeloi (), was a Byzantine Greek noble lineage which rose to prominence through the marriage of its founder, Constantine Angelos, with Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. As imperial relatives, the Angeloi held various high titles and military commands under Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. In 1185, following a revolt against Andronikos I Komnenos, Isaac II Angelos rose to the throne, the first of three Angeloi emperors who ruled until 1204. The period was marked by the decline and fragmentation of the Byzantine Empire, culminating in its dissolution by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. After the Fourth Crusade, another branch of the family managed to establish an independent state in Epirus. The members of this branch largely eschewed the use of the 'Angelos' surname in favour of the more prestigious 'Doukas' and 'Komnenos', and are collectively known as the Komnenodoukai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angelo Flavio Comneno
The Angelo Flavio Comneno or Angeli family were an Italian noble family of Albanian descent who claimed descent from the Angelos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. In the 16th century, the family founded the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George, a knightly order with invented Byzantine connections. From the 16th century onwards, the heads of the family styled themselves as "Prince of Macedonia, Duke and Count of Drivasto and Durazzo", though other titles were also sometimes used. It is possible that their claims to descent from the Angeloi were genuine, but their own genealogies, which professed descent from Emperor Isaac II Angelos (1185–1195 and 1203–1204) are unlikely to be correct given that all known male-line descendants of Isaac II were long dead before the Angeli appeared in Italy. Perhaps they descended from less known children or cousins of the Angeloi emperors, or possibly through a female line. Their descent was accepted as true throughout Western Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
